Healthcare-NOW

Bait and switch: How the “public option” was sold

By Kip Sullivan for PNHP – The people who brought us the “public option” began their campaign promising one thing but now promote something entirely different. To make matters worse, they have not told the public they have backpedalled. The campaign for the “public option” resembles the classic bait-and-switch scam: tell your customers you’ve got…

Why Obama’s Public Option Is Defective, and Why We Need Single-Payer

By Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein for the Progressive – Once Congress finishes mandating that we all buy private health insurance, it can move on to requiring Americans to purchase other defective products. A Ford Pinto in every garage? Lead-painted toys for every child? Melamine-laced chow for every puppy? Private health insurance doesn’t work.…

Single-Payer Teach-In in NYC this Saturday, Watch Live Online

Watch the teach-in live right here. The nation is abuzz with health care reform. Mark your calendars for July 25th to learn about the solution to our health care crisis. A plan that 2/3 of the public supports, 59% of physicians, and nearly 100 Members of Congress. Join the Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition,…

Single-payer advocate on Colbert Report TONIGHT

From PNHP – On Tuesday, July 21, at 11:30 pm EDT, watch Dr. Aaron Carroll talk about single-payer health reform on The Colbert Report, the Emmy award-winning satirical television program on Comedy Central. Dr. Carroll is a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org), an organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and…

Baucus 13 Settle Charges

Legal charges against the “Baucus 13” were settled in a series of court hearings held earlier this week. The 13 were charged with disruption of congress after they attempted to speak on behalf of single payer healthcare reform at two Senate Finance Committee hearings on healthcare in May. Senator Baucus, the chair of the Finance…

The AMA Does Not Represent Us

By members of PNHP – As the American Medical Association (AMA) begins its annual convention in Chicago, we want to take this opportunity to make it clear to the American public, to the media, and to the President and members of Congress, that the AMA does not represent us. It is a common misconception that…

Single payer: bold, affordable, humane

[The following is the testimony of Dr. Walter Tsou to the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions on June 10. The hearing was titled “Examining the single-payer health care option.”] By Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H. of PNHP – Congressman Andrews and members of the HELP subcommittee, my name is Dr. Walter Tsou. I…

Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies: study

Most bankrupt families had health insurance 92 percent had medical bills over $5,000 By Maggie Fox for Reuters – Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track. More than 75 percent of these…

Illness, medical bills linked to nearly two-thirds of bankruptcies

Harvard study finds 50 percent increase from 2001 Most of those bankrupted by illness were middle class and had insurance Download Study (pdf) Download Medical Bankruptcy Q&A (.doc) Download Fact Sheet (.doc) Medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds (62.1 percent) of all bankruptcies in 2007, according to a study in the August issue of the…

Democracy Now!: Baucus’s Raucous Caucus (Video)

From Democracy Now!— Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare. Advocates of single-payer universal healthcare—the system favored by most Americans—continue to protest their exclusion from discussions on healthcare reform. On Tuesday, five doctors, nurses and single-payer advocates were arrested at a Senate Finance Committee hearing,…